


That's What Friends Are For

by dizmo



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: Chocobo Impersonation, Friendship, Gen, Party Planning, Post-Canon, Post-Post-Apocalyptic, Ridiculously Domestic, Shameless Use of Adorable Children, Yuletide 2010
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 21:06:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizmo/pseuds/dizmo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years have passed since Kefka was finally defeated.  Terra has settled in to a happy life.  Of course, the past has a way of riding up.  On a chocobo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That's What Friends Are For

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nekopyo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nekopyo/gifts).



The slowly dimming light of the early evening was little deterrence for the sounds of laughter that were making their way through Mobliz. The children were making the most of the summer evening, playing games, catching fireflies, and simply enjoying themselves as children had done for as long as there had been such a thing as a child. They had all been through so very much in the past few years, but things had settled, and routine had once more made its way into the village.

A girl no older than eight came running up to a young woman who was leaning on a fence, watching the children play with a soft smile on her face. Young she was, indeed, and yet she was still the oldest person that could be found in Mobliz. The girl tugged on her arm. "Mama! Mama!"

Terra Branford smiled indulgently and looked at the girl. "Yes, Lila?"

Lila jumped up and down in excitement. "There's a man coming to town! He's riding a really big chocobo, and the chocobo is really bright yellow! You can see it for a long ways off!"

"Oh, really?" Terra pushed back from the fence thoughtfully. Not many visitors came to Mobliz, and fewer yet since the final fall of Kefka. The village was remote enough that it tended to be a deterrent. It remained to be seen what this visitor wanted.

"Yeah! Come look, Mama! Come look!" Lila's tugging on her arm became even more insistent.

Terra allowed herself to be led to a small hilltop at the edge of the village. It was true enough, off in the distance there was a flash of bright yellow that was unmistakably a chocobo. She crossed her arms thoughtfully. _Interesting. Who_ could _be visiting?_

"See, Mama?" Lila interjected excitedly, jumping up and down again.

"I see. I wonder who..." She trailed off, mouth opening in surprise as the rider finally got close enough to Mobliz to make out his features. To say it was a welcome sight was something of an understatement, but what was he doing all the way out here?

"Mama? Do you know who it is?"

Terra couldn't keep herself from grinning. "Yes I do. It's an old friend of mine and his name is Locke. Can you do me a favor and let Katarin know that Mobliz is going to have a visitor?"

"Sure! Who?"

"She and Duane know him. It's Locke. Locke Cole."

As Lila ran off to tell Katarin, Terra turned back towards her approaching friend and smiled. It had been too long.

~~

Locke looked back towards the town as he approached, Bo still running at an easy pace. They'd exchanged letters here and there, but he hadn't gotten a chance to actually see Terra in far too long. Mobliz wasn't exactly on the beaten path, but still, he figured he should have made the effort well before now. Still, better late than never, he supposed. He blinked for a moment. Was that _her_ standing up on that hill? It had to be. Nobody else he'd ever seen had _exactly_ that shade of hair. He grinned and waved, happily noticing that she waved back. He gently squeezed Bo with his knees and sped up a bit. There was an old friend he wanted to see.

~~

Katarin had insisted on cooking for the small welcome feast that they were going to have for Locke. "Enough of the older kids want to help that it really won't be a bother, Terra. Really. Catch up with your friend, all right?"

Despite any protests she had tried to make, she was unceremoniously banned from her own kitchen and out to Locke, who was giving a chocobo-back ride to Duane and Katarin's two-year-old daughter Briahna. She laughed softly, standing back and waiting for him to notice her arrival, as she watched him run in circles in the grass, making little 'wark' noises, the little girl giggling on his back. Once he finally noticed her presence, he startled a bit and put Briahna down, going to give Terra a tight squeeze. "Didn't think it would take this long before I managed to get a chance to give you a _hug_.

Terra laughed and swatted at him. "Well, if you had given me any warning that you would be _coming_ , you silly thief--"

"Treasure hunter!"

"-- then maybe I would have actually _had_ preparations ready already."

"Maybe, but then that kind of ruins the whole point of surprising you, now, doesn't it?"

Terra laughed and shook her head, leaning against a fence. "Really, Locke, what brings you all the way out here?"

"Well, you know, I was in the neighborhood, remembered you lived nearby, and decided to drop by to see how one of my best friends was doing."

"Of _course_ that's what happened."

"What?"

"Locke, you know as well as I do that there _is_ no 'in the neighborhood' of Mobliz."

"Well, okay, so I decided to drop by and therefore _got_ in the neighborhood?"

"That I'll believe. But you couldn't have decided to visit just completely randomly, now could you have?"

"Well, I _could_ have. After all, what are friends for?"

"And just leave Celes to cool her heels waiting for you? Oh yes, _that_ would have worked out well."

"Okay, details. Celes and I are planning something."

She laughed. Now they were getting somewhere. "Okay, what exactly is it that you're planning?"

Locke chuckled and leaned on the fence next to her, nudging her with his shoulder. "A reunion. We want to get the whole gang back together. Have a big party. You know, sit around with friends and food and talk about the good old days."

Terra smiled faintly. "Some of them weren't so good, if I recall correctly."

"Well no, but it ended up well. We accomplished what we wanted to, and would anyone else in the world _really_ understand?"

She thought back to those days on either side of the apocalypse. To when their small group banded together to stand up for their world, having no assurances that they would succeed, sometimes not thinking they would, yet still hoping and praying. "No. No, I don't think anyone else in the world would."

"Exactly. So Celes and I are trying to round everyone up. We're going to do our best, at least. It'll be just like old times! You know, except without nearly as much almost dying, so that'll be a plus, won't it?"

Terra just laughed and shook her head ruefully.

"It won't? You _liked_ the almost dying?"

"No, I was just thinking... you haven't changed a bit, have you?"

"Not in the ways that matter, nope. I've grown up a bit, though. I think we all have. So will you come?"

Terra hesitated. Mobliz was her home now, and the children were her responsibility. They grew so fast, did she really want to be away from them again, and miss things? They were the reason she was alive now. The reason she _hadn't_ given up, even when she was sorely tempted, even when she'd lost her power and could have died of it.

"Come on, Terra."

"... I don't know, Locke. It sounds nice, but I have so much to do here..."

"It's a few days. And if you don't say yes, I'll talk to Katarin and tell her what I'm up to. You know well enough than to think she'll let you use the town as an excuse not to meet with your friends."

She did know well enough. She sighed ruefully. "I'll think about it at least, all right?"

"You know I'll have you talked into it one way or another before I leave, right?"

Letting out a short burst of laughter, Terra replied, "You really didn't have to _point that out_."

He nudged her again. "And you know _me_ well enough to know I was going to anyway."

She smiled in amusement. He had a point, maybe. After all, what was the point of cherishing the present without remembering the past that had got them to it?

A reunion. She could see it now in her mind's eye. Relm laughing and describing a new painting, Sabin teasing his brother, who would _still_ be flirting with every woman present, Gau-- all right, Gau quite possibly making something of a mess, getting to catch up with Celes... Really, it _did_ sound pretty fun.

But she still figured she could let Locke stew for a bit.

After all, what were friends for?


End file.
